Eager pens scratching
A sense that something begins
Fresh words on the page

 

Following the summer break, five young creatives returned to The Writers’ Block on Saturday the 29th of September for a session with workshop leaders Olivia Lowry, Max Webb and Casey Bottono.

One returning writer and four newcomers got stuck into fascinating, fast-paced exercises which allowed them to explore as much of The Writers’ Block as they wished. After this, they chose an object and told the story of the object in prose or poetry.

Several of the young people remarked that they found it an interesting exercise, which encouraged them to think in new ways about their writing.

Olivia introduced the young people to working from postcards. Starting with the postcard as a jumping off point, the young people speculated on what might be happening in the scenes to form an exercise on three-act structure, and give their narratives a beginning, middle and end. This exercise kept the young people engaged and kept their pens moving throughout.

The real challenge came when Casey introduced the concept of six-word stories. Where better to start exploring micro-fiction than with Hemingway’s famous example: ‘For sale, baby shoes, never worn.’

The young people rose to the occasion and produced similarly moving miniature narratives.

The final exercise of the day was led by Max, who invited us – facilitators and young people alike – to write about what we love. The pieces produced from this exercise explored identity and hobbies, amongst other things that unite us.

Using one line from each of the young people’s works, we created a group poem that spoke to the changing seasons, and the beauty of that. Olivia closed the session by saying: ‘We all come from different places, but the thing that brings us together is our stories.’

We are looking forward to exploring more of these in future sessions.

 


Blog by writer, Casey Bottono.


The next sessions are Saturday 3 November, 10-1pm and Saturday 1 December, 10-3pm. Book online through Young Writers Group